Between the Buried and Me Live at Livewire 12/01/15 Preview

by Dakota Cleland
So tonight on December 1st, I'm going to see one of my favorite bands in
concert, Between the Buried and Me, at Livewire in Scottsdale. They are currently
touring their latest album that was released in July, "Coma Ecliptic". I've gotten to see
several progressive metal and rock shows this year, like Periphery, Rush and Mastodon
but I've been looking forward to this show for years.
I remember I was introduced to Between the Buried and Me (or BTBAM, as
they're often abbreviated) about 4 or so years ago by my oldest brother. It was my senior
year of high school and I was still very much in my Metallica fanboy phase where I was
starting out on my journey as a metal fan. My oldest brother played for me "Mordecai"
off of BTBAM's 2nd album "The Silent Circus". I was amazed at how technical and
brutal it was. It was practically going at 100 miles per hour with fast guitar and bass
soloing, blast beat drumming and very harsh vocals. I was taken aback, but I couldn't
resist liking it. And then about 2 minutes in, it changed into clean guitar sounds and
beautiful singing. Then my brother told me it was the same vocalist doing the screaming
and the singing! I kind of saw them and I still see them as the Pink Floyd of death metal.
I was sold.
Ever since then, I've dived into BTBAM's discography as an avid follower. From
their ridiculously heavy self titled album to their latest "rock-opera" album "Coma
Ecliptic", they have covered a wide range of musical styles and concepts. And yet they
still manage to make good songs!
Here are two things to expect and two things to not expect from BTBAM in
Scottsdale tonight.
1. DON'T Expect many old songs if any at all!
Between the Buried and Me has often been seen as a band that likes to look forward to
the future and not to the past. During their supporting tour with Meshuggah in 2014, the
band put out a statement on their Facebook page saying that they typically won't play as
many older songs in concert that came out before their 2007 album Colors anymore.
They said in the statement, "unfortunately, when we add some of the more obscure
older songs to our set, they either detract from the flow of the show, or just generally go
over like a wet fart at a funeral." So you can bet to see your "Selkies: The Endless
Obsession"'s and your "Prequel to the Sequel"'s, but don't expect to see "More of Myself
to Kill" or "Roboturner". As awesome as those songs are, odds are these early BTBAM

jams won't be played.

2. DO expect to see some weird bridges from different genres!
The band is also known for some stranger segues in their songs. For instance, in "Ants
of the Sky" off of the "Colors" record, the song goes from being thrashy for a good 5 or
so minutes, to having a sort of Latin jazz interlude, to more metal, to having a more
ominous bridge with clean guitars with clean singing, to a bluegrass breakdown, before
going into an epic guitar solo outro that serves as the song's refrain. That's just a loose
outline of one song's structure. There are many songs in BTBAM's discography that
bend genre's seemingly in an instant, from death metal and black metal, to Beatleesque Baroque pop, to polka, to even electronica on Dim Ignition off of Coma Ecliptic. If
you expect to see songs that are verse-chorus-verse, turn around here. You might even
get some impromptu jams if you're lucky!
3. DON'T expect to see cover songs!
In 2006, BTBAM put out a cover album entitled "The Anatomy of" which featured songs
from a wide range of artists that had influenced them over the years from Pantera and
Sepultura to King Crimson and Pink Floyd to even Queen and the Smashing Pumpkins.
BTBAM is also known to bust out a rendition of Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen in
concert. However, I am willing to bet that they won't play a cover song this time since
they are promoting a new album.
4. DO expect to sing along to epic parts and long songs!
Finally, if there's anything I enjoy from BTBAM's songs, it's just how damn catchy they
are! They are masters of writing a soaring, melodic hook to their songs. This has been
evident even since their self-titled debut album. From early songs like "Aspirations" and
"The Primer" to newer songs like "Lay Your Ghosts to Rest" and "The Coma Machine",
they all have a lyric that is bound to get stuck in your head.
Another thing to note is that since they are a progressive band, that means they have
plenty of long songs in their discography, with the longest being "Swim to the Moon" off
of "The Great Misdirect" which clocks in at 17 minutes and 54 seconds! The fact that
they can release songs that long that are still musically fun to listen to just proves that
vocalist Thomas Giles Rogers and the rest of BTBAM are musical geniuses.

Here's a list of 10 songs (in no particular order) that I'd recommend to a fan to check out
if they want to dig into some BTBAM. This just barely scratches the surface of their
discography, as they have plenty of amazing songs not on this list that will get fans
hooked onto BTBAM.
Mordecai off of "The Silent Circus"
Sun of Nothing off of "Colors"
Fossil Genera - A Feed from Cloud Mountain off of "The Great Misdirect"
Augment of Rebirth off of "The Parallax: Hypersleep Dialogues" EP
Lay Your Ghosts to Rest off of "The Parallax II: Future Sequence"
All Bodies off of "Alaska"
The Coma Machine off of "Coma Ecliptic"
Aspirations off of "Between the Buried and Me"
Selkies: The Endless Obsession off of "Alaska"
Prequel to the Sequel off of "Colors"